Caltech News tagged with "astronomy"http://www.caltech.edu/news/tag_ids/4/rss.xml
enLIGO Resumes Search for Gravitational Waveshttp://www.caltech.edu/news/ligo-resumes-search-gravitational-waves-53117
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Whitney Clavin</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/Ligo-Hanford-NEWS-WEB.jpg?itok=EtcwvgRH" alt="aerial photo of the LIGO facility in Hanford, Washington" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">LIGO Hanford Observatory</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>After a series of upgrades, the twin detectors of LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, have turned back on and resumed their search for ripples in the fabric of space and time known as gravitational waves. LIGO transitioned from engineering test runs to science observations at 8 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on November 30.</p><p>On February 11, 2016, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) and the Virgo Collaboration announced that LIGO had made the <a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/gravitational-waves-detected-100-years-after-einstein-s-prediction-49777">first-ever direct observation of gravitational waves</a>. The waves were generated by a tremendously powerful collision of two black holes 1.3 billion light-years away and were recorded by both of LIGO's detectors—one in Hanford, Washington, and the other in Livingston, Louisiana. <a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/gravitational-waves-detected-second-pair-colliding-black-holes-51070">A second gravitational-wave detection</a> by LIGO was announced on June 15, 2016, also from merging black holes.</p><p>The initial detections were made during LIGO's first run after undergoing major technical upgrades in a program called Advanced LIGO. That run lasted from September 2015 to January 2016. Since then, engineers and scientists have been evaluating LIGO's performance and making improvements to its lasers, electronics, and optics—resulting in an overall increase in LIGO's sensitivity.</p><p>"For our first run, we made two confirmed detections of black-hole mergers in four months," says Caltech's Dave Reitze, executive director of the LIGO Laboratory, which operates the LIGO observatories. "With our improved sensitivity, and a longer observing period, we will likely observe even more black-hole mergers in the coming run and further enhance our knowledge of black-hole dynamics. We are only just now, thanks to LIGO, learning about how often events like these occur."</p><p>The Livingston detector now has about a 25 percent greater sensitivity—or range for detecting gravitational waves from binary black holes—than during the first observing run. That means it can see black-hole mergers at further distances than before, and therefore should see more mergers than before. The sensitivity for the Hanford detector is similar to that of the first observing run.</p><p>"The Livingston detector has improved sensitivity for lower gravitational-wave frequencies, below about 100 hertz, primarily as the result of reducing the level of scattered light, which can be a pernicious source of noise in the interferometers," says Peter Fritschel, the associate director for LIGO at MIT and LIGO's chief detector scientist. "This is important for detecting massive systems like the merger of two black holes. We are confident that we'll see more black-hole mergers."</p><p>"LIGO Hanford scientists and engineers have successfully increased the power into the interferometer, and improved the stability of the detector," says Caltech's Mike Landry, the head of LIGO Hanford Observatory. "Significant progress has been made for the future utilization of still higher power, which will ultimately lead to improved sensitivity in future runs. Furthermore, with the addition of specialized sensors called balance-beam tilt meters in the corner and end stations, the detector is now more stable against wind and low-frequency seismic motion, thereby increasing the amount of time the detector can be in observing mode."</p><p>The LIGO team will continue to improve the observatories' sensitivities over the coming years, with increases planned for each successive observing run. As more black-hole mergers are detected by LIGO, scientists will start to get their first real understanding of black-hole pairs in the universe—including their population numbers, masses, and spin rates. LIGO may also detect the merger of neutron stars—the dense cores of exploded stars. Knowledge of both black-hole and neutron-star mergers will improve our understanding of stellar evolution and death.</p><p>"LIGO's scientific and operational staff have been working hard for the past year and are enthusiastic to restart round-the-clock observations. We are as curious as the rest of the world about what nature will send our way this year," says LIGO Livingston Observatory head Joe Giaime of Caltech and Louisiana State University.</p><p>Caltech and MIT conceived of, built, and operate the LIGO Observatories, with funding provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Advanced LIGO detector was constructed by Caltech and MIT with funding from NSF and contributions from LSC institutions worldwide, including the Max Planck Society in Germany, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in the U.K., and the Australian Research Council, among many others.</p><p>LIGO research is carried out by the international LIGO Scientific Collaboration (which includes the GEO Collaboration and the Australian Consortium for Interferometric Gravitational Astronomy) and the Virgo Collaboration in Europe. </p><p>More information about LIGO and its partners can be found at <a href="http://www.ligo.caltech.edu">www.ligo.caltech.edu</a> and <a href="http://www.ligo.org">www.ligo.org</a>.</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pr-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="https://mediaassets.caltech.edu/gwave" class="pr-link">LIGO Visuals</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu" class="pr-link">LIGO Laboratory Website</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.ligo.org" class="pr-link">LIGO Scientific Collaboration Website</a></div></div></div>Wed, 30 Nov 2016 00:25:14 +0000wclavin53117 at http://www.caltech.eduBright Radio Bursts Probe Universe's Hidden Matterhttp://www.caltech.edu/news/bright-radio-bursts-probe-universes-hidden-matter-53009
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lori Dajose</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/VRavi-RadioBurst-NEWS-WEB.jpg?itok=m2hD27TZ" alt="Dynamic spectrum of the FRB" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The intensity of FRB 150807 at different radio frequencies or colors—red corresponds to lower frequencies and blue to higher frequencies. The x-axis is time. The fine structure in the burst is the scintillation or twinkling—the rays interfere constructively and destructively differently at different frequencies. This pattern provides insights into the turbulence in plasma towards the burst.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Courtesy of V. Ravi/Caltech</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are mysterious flashes of radio waves originating outside our Milky Way galaxy. A team of scientists, jointly led by Caltech postdoctoral scholar <a href="https://pma.caltech.edu/content/vikram-ravi">Vikram Ravi</a> and Curtin University research fellow Ryan Shannon, has now observed the most luminous FRB to date, called FRB 150807.</p><p>Though astronomers still do not know what kinds of events or objects produce FRBs, the discovery is a stepping stone for astronomers to understand the diffuse, faint web of material that exists between galaxies, called the cosmic web. The findings are described in a paper appearing in <em>Science</em> on November 17.</p><p>"Because FRBs like the one we discovered occur billions of light-years away, they help us study the universe between us and them," says Ravi, who is the R A and G B Millikan Postdoctoral Scholar in Astronomy. "Nearly half of all visible matter is thought to be thinly spread throughout intergalactic space. Although this matter is not normally visible to telescopes, it can be studied using FRBs."</p><p>When FRBs travel through space, they pass through intergalactic material and are distorted, similar to the apparent twinkling of a star because its light is distorted by Earth's atmosphere. By observing these bursts, astronomers can learn details about the regions of the universe through which the bursts traveled on their way to Earth.</p><p>FRB 150807 appears to only be weakly distorted by material within its host galaxy, which shows that the intergalactic medium in this direction is no more turbulent than theorists originally predicted. This is the first direct insight into turbulence in intergalactic medium.</p><p>The researchers observed FRB 150807 while monitoring a nearby pulsar—a rotating neutron star that emits a beam of radio waves and other electromagnetic radiation—in our galaxy using the Parkes radio telescope in Australia. "Thanks to a real-time detection system developed by the Swinburne University of Technology, we found that although the FRB is a million times further away than the pulsar, the magnetic fields in their directions appear identical," says Ryan Shannon, research fellow at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Astronomy and Space Science and at Curtin University in Australia, and colead author of the study. This refutes some claims that FRBs are produced in dense environments with strong magnetic fields. The result provides a measure of the magnetism in the space between galaxies, an essential step in determining how cosmic magnetic fields are produced.</p><p>Only 18 FRBs have been detected to date. Mysteriously, most give off only a single burst and do not flash repeatedly. Additionally, most FRBs have been detected with telescopes that observe large swaths of the sky but with poor resolution, making it difficult to pinpoint the exact location of a given burst. The unprecedented brightness of FRB 150807 allowed Ravi and his team to localize it much more accurately, making it the best-localized FRB to date.</p><p>In February 2017, pinpointing the locations of FRBs will become much easier for astronomers with the commissioning of the Deep Synoptic Array prototype, an array of 10 radio dishes at Caltech's Owens Valley Radio Observatory in California.</p><p>"We estimate that there are between 2,000 and 10,000 FRBs occurring in the sky every day," Ravi says. "One in 10 of these are as bright as FRB 150807, and the Deep Synoptic Array prototype will be able to pinpoint their locations to individual galaxies. Measuring the distances to these galaxies enables us to use FRBs to weigh the tenuous intergalactic material."</p><p>Ravi is the project scientist for the Deep Synoptic Array prototype, which is being constructed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Caltech and funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through the JPL President's and Director's Fund Program.</p><p>The paper is titled <a href="http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20161115-114958283">"The magnetic field and turbulence of the cosmic web measured using a brilliant fast radio burst."</a> The Parkes radio telescope is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility, which is funded by the Commonwealth of Australia for operation as a National Facility managed by CSIRO.</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pr-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/prebiotic-molecule-detected-interstellar-cloud-50952" class="pr-link">Prebiotic Molecule Detected in Interstellar Cloud</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/hunting-ephemeral-cosmic-flashes-conversation-mansi-kasliwal-49782" class="pr-link">Hunting for Ephemeral Cosmic Flashes: A Conversation with Mansi Kasliwal</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/failed-stars-host-powerful-auroral-displays-47428" class="pr-link">"Failed Stars" Host Powerful Auroral Displays</a></div></div></div>Thu, 17 Nov 2016 17:49:08 +0000ldajose53009 at http://www.caltech.eduArt Inspired by Astronomy on Display at Caltechhttp://www.caltech.edu/news/art-inspired-astronomy-display-caltech-52957
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Whitney Clavin</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/Cahill_Art_Exhibit-7025-NEWS-WEB.jpg?itok=TyGxz9-3" alt="art exhibit at Caltech" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><em>Deep Sky Companion</em> art exhibition at Caltech&#039;s Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Caltech</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>An important chapter in the history of astronomy is seen through the eyes of Los Angeles-based artist Lia Halloran at Caltech's Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics. Halloran was inspired by the 18<sup>th</sup>-century French comet hunter Charles Messier, who cataloged fixed, fuzzy objects in the sky that he and others had initially mistaken for moving comets. His catalog, which listed objects to avoid while searching for comets, would turn out to be very useful to astronomers. Many of the objects were later discovered to be the brightest known galaxies, star clusters, and gaseous nebulae. Astronomers still refer to the objects Messier cataloged by his name and catalog number; for example, Messier 31, also known as Andromeda, is the nearest galaxy twin to our own Milky Way.</p><p>In her art exhibition called <em>Deep Sky Companion, </em>commissioned with the help of Caltech's Kip Thorne, Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus, and E. Sterl Phinney, professor of theoretical astrophysics, Halloran created paintings of Messier's objects with blue ink on semi-transparent drafting film. These were then contact-printed onto photographic paper and cut into circles evocative of the view through a telescope. Prints of each of the 110 Messier objects are displayed on the geometrically skewed lobby walls and stairwells of the Cahill building, which was designed by architect Thom Mayne. Several of the original blue-ink paintings are displayed on the stairway landings.</p><p>"Lia Halloran's inspirational artwork and its creative layout encourages us all to rediscover these iconic astronomical objects for ourselves, in the new 'Cahill sky,'" says Phinney. "Ever since Fritz Zwicky began his own galaxy catalog in the 1930s using photographic plates from his 18-inch Schmidt telescope at Palomar, Caltech astronomers have been following in Messier's footsteps, creating their own accurate catalogs of newly discovered objects in the sky. And many of our deepest insights into the workings of the universe and its contents have come from detailed Caltech studies of the Messier objects themselves. The <em>Deep Sky Companion</em> artwork is both beautiful in its own right, and also reminds us of our heritage."</p><p>Funding for the exhibition comes from Dr. and Mrs. David Groce, the Caltech Department of Astronomy, and from Chapman University and the university's Office of the Chancellor's Scholarly and Creative Activity Grant. The exhibition ends on December 18.</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pr-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.liahalloran.com" class="pr-link">Lia Halloran's website</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/content/intersection-art-and-science-maria-popova-and-lia-halloran-conversation" class="pr-link">Lia Halloran in Conversation with Brain Picking's Maria Popova on 12/18/2016</a></div></div></div>Fri, 11 Nov 2016 19:35:52 +0000wclavin52957 at http://www.caltech.eduCurious Tilt of the Sun Traced to Undiscovered Planethttp://www.caltech.edu/news/curious-tilt-sun-traced-undiscovered-planet-52710
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Robert Perkins</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/Planet-9-Art-NEWS-WEB.jpg?itok=N3aTPYiu" alt="artistic rendering of Planet Nine" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">This artistic rendering shows the distant view from Planet Nine back towards the sun. The planet is thought to be gaseous, similar to Uranus and Neptune. Hypothetical lightning lights up the night side.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Planet Nine—the undiscovered planet at the edge of the solar system that was <a href="/news/caltech-researchers-find-evidence-real-ninth-planet-49523">predicted by the work of Caltech's Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown in January 2016</a>—appears to be responsible for the unusual tilt of the sun, according to a new study.</p><p>The large and distant planet may be adding a wobble to the solar system, giving the appearance that the sun is tilted slightly.</p><p>"Because Planet Nine is so massive and has an orbit tilted compared to the other planets, the solar system has no choice but to slowly twist out of alignment," says Elizabeth Bailey, a graduate student at Caltech and lead author of a study announcing the discovery.</p><p>All of the planets orbit in a flat plane with respect to the sun, roughly within a couple degrees of each other. That plane, however, rotates at a six-degree tilt with respect to the sun—giving the appearance that the sun itself is cocked off at an angle. Until now, no one had found a compelling explanation to produce such an effect. "It's such a deep-rooted mystery and so difficult to explain that people just don't talk about it," says <a href="http://web.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/">Brown</a>, the Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Planetary Astronomy.</p><p>Brown and Batygin's discovery of evidence that the sun is orbited by an as-yet-unseen planet—that is about 10 times the size of Earth with an orbit that is about 20 times farther from the sun on average than Neptune's—changes the physics. Planet Nine, based on their calculations, appears to orbit at about 30 degrees off from the other planets' orbital plane—in the process, influencing the orbit of a large population of objects in the Kuiper Belt, which is how Brown and Batygin came to suspect a planet existed there in the first place.</p><p>"It continues to amaze us; every time we look carefully we continue to find that Planet Nine explains something about the solar system that had long been a mystery," says <a href="http://web.gps.caltech.edu/~kbatygin/Home.html">Batygin</a>, an assistant professor of planetary science.</p><p><a href="http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20161020-181358807">Their findings</a> have been accepted for publication in an upcoming issue of the <em>Astronomical Journal</em>, and will be presented on October 18 at the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences annual meeting, held in Pasadena.</p><p>The tilt of the solar system's orbital plane has long befuddled astronomers because of the way the planets formed: as a spinning cloud slowly collapsing first into a disk and then into objects orbiting a central star.</p><p>Planet Nine's angular momentum is having an outsized impact on the solar system based on its location and size. A planet's angular momentum equals the mass of an object multiplied by its distance from the sun, and corresponds with the force that the planet exerts on the overall system's spin. Because the other planets in the solar system all exist along a flat plane, their angular momentum works to keep the whole disk spinning smoothly.</p><p>Planet Nine's unusual orbit, however, adds a multi-billion-year wobble to that system. Mathematically, given the hypothesized size and distance of Planet Nine, a six-degree tilt fits perfectly, Brown says.</p><p>The next question, then, is how did Planet Nine achieve its unusual orbit? Though that remains to be determined, Batygin suggests that the planet may have been ejected from the neighborhood of the gas giants by Jupiter, or perhaps may have been influenced by the gravitational pull of other stellar bodies in the solar system's extreme past.</p><p>For now, Brown and Batygin continue to work with colleagues throughout the world to search the night sky for signs of Planet Nine along the path they predicted in January. That search, Brown says, may take three years or more.</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pr-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-researchers-find-evidence-real-ninth-planet-49523" class="pr-link">Caltech Researchers Find Evidence of a Real Ninth Planet</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://eands.caltech.edu/nine-things-to-know-about-planet-nine/" class="pr-link">Nine Things to Know About Planet Nine</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="https://youtu.be/A_tt2_7Dnlk" class="pr-link">The Caltech Effect: Freewheeling Partnership Leads to Far-Out Finding (Video)</a></div></div></div>Wed, 19 Oct 2016 15:12:45 +0000rperkins52710 at http://www.caltech.eduThe City of Astronomyhttp://www.caltech.edu/news/city-astronomy-52656
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lori Dajose</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/PIA17563-NEWS-WEB.jpg?itok=_xQ0hTNU" alt="image of the Crab nebula" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">This image shows a composite view of the Crab nebula, an iconic supernova remnant in our Milky Way galaxy, as viewed by the Herschel Space Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope. The image combines Hubble&#039;s view of the nebula at visible wavelengths, obtained using three different filters sensitive to the emission from oxygen and sulphur ions and is shown here in blue. Herschel&#039;s far-infrared image reveals the emission from dust in the nebula and is shown here in red.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: ESA/Herschel/PACS/MESS Key Programme Supernova Remnant Team; NASA, ESA and Allison Loll/Jeff Hester (Arizona State University)</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Pasadena has a rich history of astronomy discoveries, from the exploration of planets at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), to the discovery of the universe's expansion at Mount Wilson Observatory, to determining the extragalactic distance scale of the universe at Carnegie Observatories. This year, 10 Pasadena-based scientific institutions and organizations have partnered to celebrate Pasadena as the "City of Astronomy" during Pasadena's first Astronomy Week from October 16–22.</p><p>"Royal Astronomer Martin Rees called Pasadena the center of 'the universe of astronomers' a generation ago," says Caltech president Thomas F. Rosenbaum, Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and professor of physics. "Caltech is pleased to help build on this tradition and we are indebted to Mayor Terry Tornek for his leadership in making Astronomy Week a reality." </p><p>The institutions involved include <a href="http://www.caltech.edu/">Caltech</a>, <a href="http://www.obs.carnegiescience.edu/">Carnegie Observatories</a>, the <a href="http://www.gmto.org/">Giant Magellan Telescope</a>, <a href="http://www.ipac.caltech.edu">IPAC</a> at Caltech, NASA's <a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/">JPL</a>, <a href="http://www.kidspacemuseum.org/">Kidspace Children's Museum</a>, <a href="http://www.mtwilson.edu/">Mount Wilson Observatory</a>, <a href="http://www.pasadena.edu/">Pasadena City College</a>, <a href="http://www.planetary.org/">The Planetary Society</a>, and <a href="http://www.tmt.org/">Thirty Meter Telescope</a>. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.</p><p>For the past 100 years, Caltech has been a hub for astronomy. The university facilitated the telescopes at Mount Palomar and Owens Valley in California, the twin Keck telescopes in Hawaii, and is a founder in the efforts to build the Thirty Meter Telescope, astronomy's next-generation observatory. Also at Caltech, the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) was founded more than 25 years ago to support the US astronomers using space-based astronomy programs. IPAC currently manages science operations for NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, an infrared observatory that studies everything from planets to distant galaxies. NuSTAR, a NASA X-ray telescope, is exploring black holes, young exploded stars and many other phenomena, and is led by Fiona Harrison, the Benjamin M. Rosen Professor of Physics and Kent and Joyce Kresa Leadership Chair, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy at Caltech.</p><p>"Pasadena's concentration of astronomy facilities gives it a unique place in the world," says Gordon Squires, senior staff scientist with IPAC and coordinator of IPAC's involvement with Astronomy Week. "Institutions within Pasadena have developed, several times, the largest telescope in the world. Another interesting fact that many people don't know is that George Ellery Hale, a solar astronomer and one of the founders of Caltech, helped design the Pasadena Civic Center and City Hall, shaping and defining the character of our city. We are hoping that Pasadena Astronomy Week will be a place to tell these stories."</p><p>Pasadena Astronomy Week will begin with Carnegie Observatories' annual open house. Caltech will host three evenings of Astronomy on Tap—short talks, given by astronomers about general astronomy and astrophysics, at a bar in Old Town Pasadena called Der Wolfskopf. Astronomy on Tap was started this summer by the Caltech Astronomy Outreach group, led by NSF Postdoctoral Fellow Cameron Hummels. "Not only have Caltech scientists made seminal contributions to the field of astronomy, but we have worked extensively for public science education in the larger Los Angeles community with free public activities including lectures, stargazing, and discussions," Hummels says.</p><p>The week will also include stargazing opportunities at a Pasadena public elementary school and Mount Wilson, a public lecture at JPL, and the first Pasadena Astronomy Festival.</p><p>The week was chosen to coincide with the annual meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Association, held in Pasadena this year. As part of Astronomy Week, DPS will host a free public talk and access to the conference's astronomy art exhibit.</p><p>"The DPS meeting is a major international astronomy conference. Its location in Pasadena this year is a great opportunity for partnership," says Squires.</p><p>A full list of events can be found here: <a href="http://www.cityofastronomy.org/events/">http://www.cityofastronomy.org/events/</a></p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pr-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/astronomy-hosts-new-public-stargazing-and-lecture-series-49854" class="pr-link">Astronomy Hosts New Public Stargazing and Lecture Series</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/high-school-students-hunt-pulsars-51328" class="pr-link">High School Students Hunt for Pulsars</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/science-communication-conversation-hirosi-ooguri-51749" class="pr-link">Science Communication: A Conversation with Hirosi Ooguri</a></div></div></div>Thu, 13 Oct 2016 17:53:26 +0000ldajose52656 at http://www.caltech.eduJPL News: Building Blocks of Life's Building Blocks Come from Starlighthttp://www.caltech.edu/news/jpl-news-building-blocks-lifes-building-blocks-come-starlight-52624
<div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/PIA21073.jpg?itok=Iyxp0MY0" alt="Orion Nebula as seen by Herschel" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The dusty side of the Sword of Orion is illuminated in this striking infrared image from the European Space Agency&#039;s Hershel Space Observatory. This immense nebula is the closest large region of star formation, situated about 1,500 light years away in the constellation of Orion. <a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA21073" target="_blank">(Full image and caption)</a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Life exists in a myriad of wondrous forms, but if you break any organism down to its most basic parts, it's all the same stuff: carbon atoms connected to hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and other elements. But how these fundamental substances are created in space has been a longstanding mystery.</p><p>Now, astronomers better understand how molecules form that are necessary for building other chemicals essential for life. Thanks to data from the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory, scientists have found that ultraviolet light from stars plays a key role in creating these molecules, rather than "shock" events that create turbulence, as was previously thought.</p><p>Scientists studied the ingredients of carbon chemistry in the Orion Nebula, the closest star-forming region to Earth that forms massive stars. They mapped the amount, temperature and motions of the carbon-hydrogen molecule (CH, or "methylidyne" to chemists), the carbon-hydrogen positive ion (CH+) and their parent: the carbon ion (C+). An ion is an atom or molecule with an imbalance of protons and electrons, resulting in a net charge.</p><p>"On Earth, the sun is the driving source of almost all the life on Earth. Now, we have learned that starlight drives the formation of chemicals that are precursors to chemicals that we need to make life," said Patrick Morris, first author of the paper and researcher at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech in Pasadena.</p><p><a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2016-263">Read the full story at JPL News</a></p></div></div></div>Tue, 11 Oct 2016 23:22:00 +0000wclavin52624 at http://www.caltech.eduCaltech Galaxy Visualizations Featured in IMAX Filmhttp://www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-galaxy-visualizations-featured-imax-film-52573
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Whitney Clavin</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-video file-video-youtube view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
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<h2 class="element-invisible">Caltech Science in Terrence Malick’s “Voyage of Time”</h2>
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<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/grid_9/s3/media-youtube/vr8e7d5Wzh0.jpg?itok=wxgSRhbj" width="450" height="300" alt="Caltech Science in Terrence Malick’s “Voyage of Time”" /> </div>
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</a><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Phil Hopkins, associate professor of theoretical astrophysics, and postdoctoral researcher Chris Hayward, create custom visualizations to help filmmaker Terrence Malick explore the mysteries of the universe. Hopkins and Hayward joined the stars on the red carpet at the California Science Center for the IMAX premiere last week. <em>Voyage of Time</em> opens around the country on Friday, Oct. 7, 2016.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Caltech</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Two Caltech scientists, Associate Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics <a href="http://www.tapir.caltech.edu/~phopkins/Site/Welcome.html">Phil Hopkins</a> and his postdoctoral fellow Chris Hayward, provided scientific simulations for a new IMAX film, <em><a href="http://voyageoftime.imax.com/">Voyage of Time</a></em>, directed by Terrence Malick and narrated by Brad Pitt.</p><p>The film is Malick's first foray into documentary storytelling. According to the website of the California Science Center, where the movie is playing in Los Angeles, the movie is an "up-close-and-personal journey that spans eons from the Big Bang to the dinosaur age to our present human world…and beyond."</p><p>Hopkins and Hayward provided state-of-the-art simulations of galaxies colliding and evolving over time for the IMAX movie. These simulations, performed on supercomputers, help researchers understand how galaxies, and our universe as a whole, evolve from basic ingredients, such as hydrogen gas.</p><p>The movie is playing from October 7 to November 18. Check the <a href="http://californiasciencecenter.org/imax/movies/voyage-of-time">California Science Center website</a> for more information and to purchase tickets.</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pr-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/recreating-our-galaxy-supercomputer-51995" class="pr-link">Recreating Our Galaxy in a Supercomputer</a></div></div></div>Fri, 07 Oct 2016 00:23:30 +0000wclavin52573 at http://www.caltech.eduModular Space Telescope Could Be Assembled By Robothttp://www.caltech.edu/news/modular-space-telescope-could-be-assembled-robot-52453
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Robert Perkins</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/BP-Fig11-CADSnapshots-NEWS-WEB.jpg?itok=xkloVw-H" alt="Robot" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Illustration shows how a robot could assemble the trusses that would support a massive telescope mirror.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Sergio Pellegrino/Caltech</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Seeing deep into space requires large telescopes. The larger the telescope, the more light it collects, and the sharper the image it provides.</p><p>For example, NASA's Kepler space observatory, with a mirror diameter of under one meter, is searching for exoplanets orbiting stars up to 3,000 light-years away. By contrast, the Hubble Space Telescope, with a 2.4-meter mirror, has studied stars more than 10 billion light-years away. </p><p>Now Caltech's <a href="http://eas.caltech.edu/people/3289/profile">Sergio Pellegrino</a> and colleagues are proposing a space observatory that would have a primary mirror with a diameter of 100 meters—40 times larger than Hubble's. Space telescopes, which provide some of the clearest images of the universe, are typically limited in size due to the difficulty and expense of sending large items into space. Pellegrino's team would circumvent that issue by shipping the mirror up as separate components that would be assembled, in space, by robots.</p><p>Their design calls for the use of more than 300 deployable truss modules that could be unfolded to form a scaffolding upon which a commensurate number of small mirror plates could be placed to create a large segmented mirror. The assembly of the scaffolding and the attachment of the many mirrors is a task well-suited to robots, Pellegrino and his colleagues say.</p><p>In their concept, a spider-like, six-armed "hexbot" would assemble the trusswork and then crawl across the structure to build the mirror atop it. It was modeled on the JPL RoboSimian system, which in 2015 completed the <a href="http://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/tasks/showTask.cfm?TaskID=236&amp;tdaID=700043">DARPA Robotics Challenge</a>, a federal competition aimed at spurring the development of robots that could perform complicated tasks that would be dangerous for humans. The hexbot would run on electrical power from the telescope's solar grid. It would use four of its arms to walk—with one leg moving at any given time, while the three others remain securely attached to the structure. The two remaining arms would be free to assemble the trusses and mirrors.</p><p>The team opted to pursue an ambitious 100-meter design. "We wanted to study how different kinds of architectures perform as the diameter is increased," says Pellegrino, Joyce and Kent Kresa Professor of Aeronautics and Professor of Civil Engineering in Caltech's Division of Engineering and Applied Science, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory Senior Research Scientist. "We found that far away from the Earth, a structurally connected telescope is much heavier than an architecture based on separate spacecraft for the primary mirror, the optics, and the instrumentation."</p><p>The realization of such an assembly is still decades away. However, Pellegrino and his colleagues are already working on the various technologies that will be needed to make it possible.</p><p>The entire space observatory would be composed of the fully assembled mirror-and-truss structure and three other parts, flying in formation. An optics and instrumentation unit would be located about 400 meters from the mirror; a control unit, stationed about 400 meters beyond that, would align the system and keep it working properly; and a thin shade, roughly 20 meters in diameter, would shield the mirror from the sun to keep its temperature stable and consistent across its diameter.</p><p>The four-part assembly would be stationed at one of the sun–earth Lagrange points—locations between the sun and the earth where the pull of gravity from two bodies locks a satellite into orbit with them, allowing it to maintain a stable position. There, the space observatory could peer deep into space without drifting out of place.</p><p>Pellegrino collaborated with <a href="http://eas.caltech.edu/people/2953/profile">Joel Burdick,</a> Nicolas Lee, and Kristina Hogstrom of Caltech, as well as Paul Backes, Christine Fuller, Brett Kennedy, Junggon Kim, Rudranarayan Mukherjee, Carl Seubert, and Yen-Hung Wu of JPL. A paper about the work, titled <a href="http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20160929-074105794">"Architecture for in-space robotic assembly of a modular space telescope,"</a> was published by the <em>Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems</em>. This research was supported by NASA and the W. M. Keck Institute for Space Studies.</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pr-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/article/406" class="pr-link">Caltech Students Work on Proposed Space Mission for Final Project</a></div></div></div>Wed, 28 Sep 2016 18:30:20 +0000rperkins52453 at http://www.caltech.eduRecreating Our Galaxy in a Supercomputerhttp://www.caltech.edu/news/recreating-our-galaxy-supercomputer-51995
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Whitney Clavin</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-video file-video-youtube view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
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<h2 class="element-invisible">Supercomputers Solve Case of Missing Galaxies</h2>
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<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/grid_9/s3/media-youtube/b0R-2mM0Ghs.jpg?itok=RYh-G2fb" width="450" height="300" alt="Supercomputers Solve Case of Missing Galaxies" /> </div>
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</a><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Caltech Associate Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics Phil Hopkins and Carnegie-Caltech Research Fellow Andrew Wetzel use massive supercomputers to build the most detailed and powerful simulation of galaxy formation ever created. The results solve a decades-long mystery regarding dwarf galaxies around our Milky Way.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Caltech</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Astronomers have created the most detailed computer simulation to date of our Milky Way galaxy's formation, from its inception billions of years ago as a loose assemblage of matter to its present-day state as a massive, spiral disk of stars.</p><p>The simulation solves a decades-old mystery surrounding the tiny galaxies that swarm around the outside of our much larger Milky Way. Previous simulations predicted that thousands of these satellite, or dwarf, galaxies should exist. However, only about 30 of the small galaxies have ever been observed. Astronomers have been tinkering with the simulations, trying to understand this "missing satellites" problem to no avail.</p><p>Now, with the new simulation—which used a network of thousands of computers running in parallel for 700,000 central processing unit (CPU) hours—Caltech astronomers have created a galaxy that looks like the one we live in today, with the correct, smaller number of dwarf galaxies.</p><p>"That was the aha moment, when I saw that the simulation can finally produce a population of dwarf galaxies like the ones we observe around the Milky Way," says Andrew Wetzel, postdoctoral fellow at Caltech and Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, and lead author of a paper about the new research, published August 20 in <em>Astrophysical Journal Letters</em>.</p><p>One of the main updates to the new simulation relates to how supernovae, explosions of massive stars, affect their surrounding environments. In particular, the simulation incorporated detailed formulas that describe the dramatic effects that winds from these explosions can have on star-forming material and dwarf galaxies. These winds, which reach speeds up to thousands of kilometers per second, "can blow gas and stars out of a small galaxy," says Wetzel.</p><p>Indeed, the new simulation showed the winds can blow apart young dwarf galaxies, preventing them from reaching maturity. Previous simulations that were producing thousands of dwarf galaxies weren't taking the full effects of supernovae into account.</p><p>"We had thought before that perhaps our understanding of dark matter was incorrect in these simulations, but these new results show we don't have to tinker with dark matter," says Wetzel. "When we more precisely model supernovae, we get the right answer."</p><p>Astronomers simulate our galaxy to understand how the Milky Way, and our solar system within it, came to be. To do this, the researchers tell a computer what our universe was like in the early cosmos. They write complex codes for the basic laws of physics and describe the ingredients of the universe, including everyday matter like hydrogen gas as well as dark matter, which, while invisible, exerts gravitational tugs on other matter. The computers then go to work, playing out all the possible interactions between particles, gas, and stars over billions of years.</p><p>"In a galaxy, you have 100 billion stars, all pulling on each other, not to mention other components we don't see like dark matter," says Caltech's <a href="http://www.tapir.caltech.edu/~phopkins/Site/Welcome.html">Phil Hopkins</a>, associate professor of theoretical astrophysics and principal scientist for the new research. "To simulate this, we give a supercomputer equations describing those interactions and then let it crank through those equations repeatedly and see what comes out at the end."</p><p>The researchers are not done simulating our Milky Way. They plan to use even more computing time, up to 20 million CPU hours, in their next rounds. This should lead to predictions about the very faintest and smallest of dwarf galaxies yet to be discovered. Not a lot of these faint galaxies are expected to exist, but the more advanced simulations should be able to predict how many are left to find. </p><p>The study, titled <a href="http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20160906-220609945">"Reconciling Dwarf Galaxies with ΛCDM Cosmology: Simulating A Realistic Population of Satellites Around a Milky Way-Mass Galaxy,"</a> was funded by Caltech, a Sloan Research Fellowship, the National Science Foundation, NASA, an Einstein Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Space Telescope Science Institute, UC San Diego, and the Simons Foundation. Other coauthors on the study are: Ji-Hoon Kim of Stanford University, Claude-André Faucher-Giguére of Northwestern University, Dušan Kereš of UC San Diego, and Eliot Quataert of UC Berkeley.</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pr-links field-type-link-field field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Links:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="https://mediaassets.caltech.edu/gform" class="pr-link">Additional Video and Images with Download Links</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="https://carnegiescience.edu/news/reconciling-dwarf-galaxies-dark-matter" class="pr-link">Carnegie Observatories Release</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.caltech.edu/content/interactions-space-interview-philip-hopkins" class="pr-link">Interactions in Space: An Interview with Philip Hopkins</a></div></div></div>Tue, 06 Sep 2016 18:37:38 +0000wclavin51995 at http://www.caltech.eduExploration & Collaboration: The JPL-Caltech Connectionhttp://www.caltech.edu/news/exploration-collaboration-jpl-caltech-connection-51637
<div class="field field-name-news-writer field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">News Writer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lori Dajose</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="ds-1col file file-image file-image-jpeg view-mode-full_grid_9 clearfix ">
<img src="http://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/styles/article_photo/s3/Caltech-JPL-Infographic-500w.jpg?itok=Vlz6WCRZ" alt="" /><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/Caltech-JPL-Infographic-2000w.jpg" target="_blank">VIEW FULL-SIZE IMAGE</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-credit-sane-label field-type-ds field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Credit: Caltech</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Caltech's partnership with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has made possible countless discoveries about our universe—how and why black holes flare, where the water on Mars went, and how Earth's carbon cycle works, just to name a few. Current Caltech faculty are participants on 12 missions.</p><p><a href="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www-prod-storage.cloud.caltech.edu/Caltech-JPL-Infographic-2000w.jpg" target="_blank">VIEW FULL-SIZE IMAGE</a></p></div></div></div>Mon, 08 Aug 2016 22:09:29 +0000ldajose51637 at http://www.caltech.edu